I eat too much. That affects my health, and not for the better. I keep praying to eat less, and for a while I do, but then revert back to eating too much. It’s happened time and time again.
Does that mean God has failed? No. It means I’ve failed. If I’d actually put my trust in Him instead of food or my own attempts to regulate my blood sugar, I’d succeed in losing weight and keeping my A1c in control.
Mostly it means I don’t really want to eat less. I enjoy food.
There’s a story from back in 1973 when some guys went to rob a bank in Sweden. The police showed up and the bad guys took four people hostage for six days. When situation was resolved and the robbers jailed, the former hostages refused to testify against the people who’d held them captive for most of a week. The phenomenon is known as the Stockholm Syndrome.
According to the FBI, hostages have an 8% chance of falling victim to Stockholm Syndrome. The most recognizable case of it in America involves the 1974 hostage Patty Hearst. The jurors at her trial didn’t buy into the Stockholm Syndrome defense, and she was convicted of aiding the hostage-takers. Bill Clinton later pardoned her.
Unrepentant sinners suffer a kind of Stockholm Syndrome. They’re captured by secular humanist philosophies, and don’t believe they need to be rescued. We have access to so much the human race has never had before, what rational person thinks they need to be rescued?
The hostage takers promise food, clothing, entertainment, and all sorts of toys. They also say the rescuers want to take away all their fun, food, and funds.
They’re wrong.
The promise of sin is like an all-you-can-eat binge at a fast-food restaurant. Then they tell you, “Christians want to take your delicious food away from you.” But God promises a banquet the likes of which you’ve never tasted before, and you’d gladly give up your quarter-pounder with cheese to get the best steak (or Vegan lasagna) cooked by the best chef the world has ever known. To top it all off - no calories.
Have you noticed my fixation on food yet?
Jesus came to rescue us from each and every sin we’ve committed. Even the smallest of them would keep us out of His Heavenly banquet, but since He died to pay the penalty for our sins, we have access to the best of the best.
Greg Laurie* said, “To the Christian, this [life] is as bad as it gets. To the non-Christian, this [life] is as good as it gets.” So imagine the next life is either a billion times better or a billion times worse, depending on one single choice.
When the Christian Commandos, bibles drawn, come crashing through the front doors of the bank where the SLA is keeping you hostage, will you side with the secular humanists? Do you even want to be saved?
Or do you want to sit in that uncomfortable chair in a bank vault eating the familiar greasy food that’ll kill you in the end?
I’ll keep praying to eat less, thank you very much. The banquet of no-calorie food is only six days away in Stockholm, Sweden.
*Greg Laurie may have been quoting C. S. Lewis.
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